Door and operating mechanism therefor



1 0. L. DAUTRICK.

DOOR AND OPERATING MECHANISM THEREFOR.

'Patented Feb. 28, 1922.

0; L. DAUTRICK.

1 DOOR AND OPERATING MECHANISM THEREFOR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV: 18, 1919.

Patented Feb. 28, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- awemlfiazzfijc' 9 owm o UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OWEN I4. DAUTRICK, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOFREDERICK M. SUMNER, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

DOOR AND OPERATING ISM THEREFOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 28, 1922.

Application filed November 18, 1919. Serial No. 338,791.

residing at Detroit, in the county of lVayne and State of Michigan, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Doors and OperatingMechanism T herefor, of which the following is a specification,reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to doors and operating mechanism adapted foropening and closing the doors, and has special reference to large doors,other than the hinged or horizontally sliding type, used for closinglarge doorways.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a rollable or flexibledoor that may be advantageously used as a garage door, it beingconstructed so as to be shifted upwardly near the roof or ceiling of thegarage and thus occupy a space where the movement of an automobile orother vehicle cannot interfere with the door. It is a well known factthat ordinary hinged doors must be propped open against wind pressureand that there is considerable annoyance and trouble experienced with agarage equipped with such doors.

Another object of this invention is to furnish a rollable or flexibledoor with a novel operating mechanism by which the door may be easilyand quickly opened or closed and positively retained in its adjustedposition, the mechanism being located at the inner side of the door anddisposed so that the door may positively seal the doorway to exclude theelements and prevent the doorway from being surreptitiously entered.

A further object of this invention is to provide a door and an operatingmechanism therefor wherein the parts are constructed with a view ofreducing the cost of manufacture and at the same time retain thosefeatures by which safety, durability, and ease of operation are secured.With such ends in wow, the invention resides in the novel constructionhereinafter described and then claimed.

Reference will now be had to the drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is ahorizontal sectional view of a doorway provided with a door and itsoperating mechanism in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a view of the inner side of the door and its operatingmechanism;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the doorway and the operating mechanismsupported thereby;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional View of a portion of a door in accordancewith this invention, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of one of the slats or membersadapted to form the door.

In the drawings, the reference numeral 1 denotes the side frames of adoorway 2 and these side frames are provided with guide rails 3 for thevertical side edges of a rollable or foldable door composed of aplurality of articulated transverse slats or members 4, best shown inFigs. 4 and 5. Each slat or member has its longitudinal edges shoulderedor chamfered, as at 5 so that adjoining slats or members will haveinterlocked or lapped connection when all of said slats or members arein a common plane, but the joint between abutting slats or members issuch that the door structure may be rolled or shifted at an angle, forinstance as indicated by dotted lines in connection with the uppermostslats or members shown in Fig. 4.

Suitably connected to the inner walls of the slats or members 4 arefixed links 6 forming part of chains or flexible members which includelinks 7 at the joined edges of the slats or members, the links 7connecting the fixed links 6 so that all of the slats or members will bearticulated and the links 7 will permit of the door structure beingrolled or shifted with the slats or members separating sufficiently topermit of the door structure being moved at an angle to its verticalplane between the side rails 3. The links 6 and 7 of the chain affordshoulders or abutments 8 and it is against these shoulders or abutmentsthat the teeth 9 of wheels 10 engage. The wheels 10 are disposed inparallelism on a shaft 11 j ournaled in bearings or brackets 12 carriedby the side frames 1 of the doorway, and one end of the shaft 11 has aworm wheel 13. 1

That bearing or bracket 12 adjacent the worm wheel 13 is provided withbearings 14 for a shaft 15 disposed in a plane transverse to the shaft11. On the shaft 15 is a worm 16 meshing with the worm wheel 13 and onthe outer end of said shaft is a driven wheel 17 over which is trainedan endless chain 18 I danger of the chain buckling or becoming thereof.However, with the mechanism 10- a accidentally displaced. The guidemembers 20 are somewhat funnel shaped and automatically adjustthemselves during the movement of the chain: 18. The chain-18 representsa convenient means of imparting movement to the wheel 15 from a pointremote therefrom, it being obvious that the door operating mechanismmust be located above the doorway or at such an elevation as not tointerfere with the passage of vehicles through the doorway.

From the foregoing, it will be observed that my door provides a verydurable structure having an uninterrupted exterior surface and with theedges of the door in the guide rails '3 it is practically impossible tomanipulate the door from the outer side cated at the innerside of thedoor it is possible to quickly raise and lower the door and this isaccomplished without much effort on the part of the operator. In someinstances the door may be made a rigid structure and or supporting meansmaintaining the door in such position. Racks and pinions may besubstituted for the articulated links and toothed wheels at the door andvarious kinds of transmission devices can be used at the side of thedoorway for revolving the main shaft, therefore we do not care toconfine our invention to the precise construction and arrangement ofparts shown, other than defined by the appended claims.

What I claim is 1. The combination with a vertical doorway frame, asectional flexible door slidable vertically therein, chains on the innerside of said door and having links connected to the door sections,wheels engaging the links of said chains for controlling the movement ofthe door, a shaft supporting said wheels at .the upper portion of thedoor, and means operable at the lower portion of the door for impartingmovement to said shaft.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, whereinthe door sections arearticulated by the chains connected thereto.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in the presence of twowitnesses.

OWEN L. DAUTRICK.

Witnesses:

O. F. BARTHEL, G. E. MCGRANN.

